Jackie's Got a Brand New Bag!

Today's post features the notorious Jackie Shane, who has featured in a prior post. Since I wrote that post over two years ago, a CBC radio documentary, I Got Mine: The Story of Jackie Shane, has given Shane's story the treatment it has long deserved. Since the program aired, soul fans have been digging, and rumors that Shane was murdered years ago have now been debunked, as it has been revealed that Shane is alive and well and living in Nashville, Tennessee, his hometown.

Fortunately for those of us who did not have the chance to see Shane do his thing, there are two resources available. In 1965 or '66 Jackie appeared on the seminal Nashville TV show Night Train (a YouTube video of the appearance is in the prior blog post), video from which is believed to be the only film footage of him. For a better record, though, there's the LP Jackie Shane Live, which presents a Toronto nightclub show in which Jackie performs his 1963 hit "Any Other Way" and covers of soul hits of the day. Jackie's colorful stage performance style is showcased throughout the album, particularly in extended monologues in "Money (That's What I Want)" and others, in which he presents himself as being proud of who he is - quite a statement to make at that time - because, as he put it, "I got mine."

His take on James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" from the album, like his version of "Walking the Dog" on the Night Train clip, has a touch of sass but nothing short of a metric ton of soul. His version joins Otis Redding's in my list of the best James Brown covers ever made. Get on down, Jackie!